Post by Nester the Lark on Aug 31, 2013 21:11:41 GMT -5

Keiji Inafune's company Comcept has initiated a Kickstarter for a side-scrolling action game called Mighty No. 9.

In the introduction video, he makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is essentially a Mega Man game in all but name. But he implies that the reason he's making it is because he feels guilty about the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3, and he wants to make the kind of game that his fans want.

I actually think it sounds pretty cool. I don't mind that it's essentially a blatant rip-off, although considering it's coming from Inafune, himself, it's more like self-plagiarism. And hey, it's not like Capcom is doing anything productive with Mega Man these days anyway. Even Nintendo is using him more.

Post by nocturnal YL on Sept 2, 2013 12:53:33 GMT -5

Isn't this a bit dangerous? All these remind me of what happened to this guy called Syozo Kaga... I'm all for seeing them make games like these, of course. But if they aren't careful, will Capcom silently watch, then sue them when the game came to fruitation, nullifying all the efforts and money put into it?

I don't think Capcom wants their old stuff. Mega Man, Street Fighter, even Resident Evil. No longer important to them now that they have Ace Attroney and Monster Hunter.

Post by 8bitretroshit on Sept 2, 2013 14:10:25 GMT -5

I thought this forum would be bursting with activity after SSB4's reveal, but not really! A lot of the old posters moved on. To be honest I don't really bother to check once a day anymore either (which explains my late replies here and there)

Anyway! I'm pretty excited for TOTALLY-not-Megaman, immediately supported it when hearing about it yesterday. Hopefully it becomes a succes just to show Capcom that 'Look! A 2D platformer starring a boy robot is still profitable!' I need my run 'n gun platformer fix..!

Isn't this a bit dangerous? All these remind me of what happened to this guy called Syozo Kaga... I'm all for seeing them make games like these, of course. But if they aren't careful, will Capcom silently watch, then sue them when the game came to fruitation, nullifying all the efforts and money put into it?

Did Nintendo sue that Syozo guy for his FE inspired game? Did something come of that cause I can't really find anything about it on the net.

And how can they not 'want' Street Fighter if they're working on a new expansion right now? And Resident Evil's still their most recognised franchise (in the West) so you can bet there'll be plenty of new ones these coming years.

Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 2, 2013 14:12:47 GMT -5

Actually, here's an article by Jeremy Parish at USGamer where he explains why he doesn't think there will be legal problems. He even references the Tear Ring Saga lawsuit (which Nintendo lost), as well as Apple vs Microsoft, and Capcom's own previous lost lawsuit against Data East for Fighter's History.

I thought this forum would be bursting with activity after SSB4's reveal, but not really! A lot of the old posters moved on. To be honest I don't really bother to check once a day anymore either (which explains my late replies here and there)

I was planning of having another NinDB Top 25 this month, but I figured not enough people would be around to participate.

Post by nocturnal YL on Sept 2, 2013 15:26:18 GMT -5

Did Nintendo sue that Syozo guy for his FE inspired game? Did something come of that cause I can't really find anything about it on the net.

And how can they not 'want' Street Fighter if they're working on a new expansion right now? And Resident Evil's still their most recognised franchise (in the West) so you can bet there'll be plenty of new ones these coming years.

Simple story: Syozo Kaga made something called TearRing Saga, and advertised it as an FE sequel, going so far as to call it Emblem Saga at first and using a few words that IS trademarked ("Mamkute" and "Pegasus Knight", for example). Nintendo and IS then sued Enterbrain (publisher) and Tirnanog (Kaga's studio) as a result. In the end, Kaga's side had to pay a one-time fee to Nintendo and IS, but was allowed to continue selling the game.

With SF and RE, there were minor incidents (same old day 1 DLC and game quality stuff), and there seems to be a lack of Japanese advertisement effort (which is what I mostly see). I don't know about the Western side, and it's definitely nothing like Mega Man, but Capcom's Japanese HQ seem to care about nothing but Ace Attroney and Monster Hunter these days.

Post by Leon on Sept 2, 2013 20:31:46 GMT -5

Actually, here's an article by Jeremy Parish at USGamer where he explains why he doesn't think there will be legal problems. He even references the Tear Ring Saga lawsuit (which Nintendo lost), as well as Apple vs Microsoft, and Capcom's own previous lost lawsuit against Data East for Fighter's History.

The Tear Ring Saga part isn't totally accurate, Nintendo did win on appeal and it's sequel Berwick Saga ended up drastically different. I think this game will be the same, this game will be released, but any sequels will end up changing things dramatically.

Post by Shadrio on Sept 4, 2013 1:04:11 GMT -5

Personally, I'd prefer Mighty No.9 as a portable game. It doesn't seem like the kind of game I'd drop everything to play, like any other console game, but more like game I'd play when I've got a few minutes to myself, like how I treat portable games.

Still, if this doesn't get canned, I'd love to look more into it after it's become more solid. I miss the old Megaman games, especially the X series. After Megaman X5, the series as a whole felt so bland.

Post by Nester the Lark on Sept 4, 2013 12:47:11 GMT -5

You're not the only one who feels that way about Mega Man. From what I understand, Inafune intended X5 to be the end of the X series (its ending ties in better with the beginning of the Zero series), but Capcom went and started working on X6 behind his back.

It's funny to think that 10 years ago, the series was heavily saturated, with a new Mega Man game being released just about every month. And now, Capcom has cancelled more Mega Man games than they've released in the past five years.

Post by Nester the Lark on Oct 1, 2013 16:52:37 GMT -5

I haven't been posting updates here, but here's a summary for those of you who haven't been following.

As I post this, the Kickstarter is ending in just a couple of hours, and they've raised over $3,800,000 dollars, making it the third most successful video game Kickstarter ever. They've reached 15 stretch goals, which includes the game coming to just about every major platform, including Wii U, 3DS, PS3, PS4, PSVita, 360, XB1, Windows, Mac and Linux. Manami Matsumae and Takashi Tateishi, the composers for Mega Man 1 and 2 respectively, are doing the soundtrack. They've licensed the Unreal Engine for the graphics, and have already created some test footage.

This is not representative of the game, and is basically just an animatic.

You can see the rest of the stretch goals yourself at the Kickstarter page, but there's some cool ones.

Also, the final live stream is about to start (as I post this). I think Keiji Inafune is supposed to make an appearance to announce the top three finalists in the Call design vote.

EDIT: The Kickstarter is officially over, and with PayPal, they raised over $4 million and reached every single stretch goal.